...Kaitlyn Daignault December 2, 2012 Research Paper Hitler and Mussolini The relationship between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini helped to instill fear throughout the rest of Europe through the 1930s and 1940s. The powerhouse duo was very similar in many ways including persuasion and public speaking; however they also had different key qualities to make them unique. Having risen to power years earlier during the 1920s, Benito Mussolini was the senior of the two, and an initial inspiration and mentor for a young Adolf Hitler. Mussolini’s ideas of a fascist Italy became a building block for Hitler and Nazi Germany. However, early on their relationship was not a good one as Mussolini saw himself as superior. Mussolini had little respect for Hitler and the Nazi Germany as a whole. He did not agree with Hitler’s beliefs regarding racialism and his desire of an Aryan race. As time continued Mussolini’s view of Nazi Germany and Hitler would change completely. As the Germans became the powerhouse of Europe, Mussolini was forced to take a backseat to Hitler throughout World War II. A young Benito Mussolini began his rise to power in Italy as early as 1918. It is then that he realized that in order for Italy to grow as a dominant force in Europe, a dictatorship was necessary. With his good looks and his persuasive speeches, a young Mussolini was able to gain the support of the Italian people. Although the content of his speeches was often incorrect, opinions contradictory...
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...from the Italian rule. Since there was no great theoretical writer during this age who would have explained the philosophies clearly in the way that Karl Marx had did for Communism. Mussolini had been frequently changing his policies and aims before 1923 which suggested that his main aim was to acquire power. Some of the basic principles of Fascism can be listed as follows: • Extreme Nationalism: Emphasis on the re-birth of the Nation after a period of decline and also establishing that one’s own Nation is superior to all. • A totalitarian system of Government: In this the Government attempted to arouse and mobilize the ordinary people and to organize them with strong disciplinary measures and to control as many aspects of human life as possible. According to the ‘fascists’, this was necessary in order to promote the interest of the State. • A one party state was essential: there was no place for democracy and especially communism. The fascist party members were the elite class of the Nation and the leader would win mass support thrilling speeches. • Importance of economic self-sufficiency (autarchy): This was required in order to develop the greatness of the state. • Military strength and violence: This was an integral part of the way of life in fascism. Mussolini himself remarked, ‘Peace is absurd: fascism does not believe in it’. What benefits did Fascism bring for the Italians? What mattered to the people was that whether the...
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...Benito Mussolini was head of the Italian government from 1922 to 1943. He was the founder of fascism, and as a dictator he held absolute power and severely mistreated his citizens and his country. He led Italy into three straight wars, the last of which led to his overthrow by his own people. Early life and career Benito Mussolini was born at Dovia di Predappio, Italy, on July 29, 1883. The Mussolinis were a poor family who lived in a crowded two-bedroom apartment. His father was a blacksmith and a follower of socialism (a system providing for the sharing of land and goods equally among all people); his mother taught elementary school. Benito, although intelligent, was violent and had a large ego. He was a poor student at school and learned very little. As a student at a boarding school in Faenza, Italy, Mussolini stabbed another student, and as a result he was expelled. After receiving his diploma in 1901 he briefly taught secondary school. He went to Switzerland in 1902 to avoid military service, where he associated with other socialists. Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904, spent time in the military, and engaged in politics full time thereafter. Mussolini had become a member of the Socialist Party in 1900 and had begun to attract wide admiration. In speeches and articles he was extreme and violent, urging revolution at any cost, but he was also well spoken. Mussolini held several posts as editor and labor leader until he emerged in the 1912 Socialist Party Congress...
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...Miles Bernhard Honors History 11 Mr. Eric Fulmer 18 September 2012 Mussolini’s Way Benito “Il Duce” Mussolini was one of Italy’s most prominent leaders. His political ingenuity ushered Italy into a new decade. The party he formed was a medium many Italians valued; this party was and is still known today as Fascism. The following dissertation will explore the definition of this newly formed party, study his rise to power, and analyze the issues that commenced his fall from it. Europe had just hosted a war on a grand scale, involving countries from every corner of the world. Many of Europe’s imperial superpowers lay in absolute ruins whether it was physically, politically or economically. The Kingdom of Italy was no exception. There was little physical destruction in comparison to France or the United Kingdom, however the empire remained in great debt, and civilians were worried about a communist revolt that would mirror that in Russia. Benito Mussolini, a former journalist turned parliament member capitalized on this situation by instituting a new kind of government called Fascism. Today we interpret fascism as a leftist sort of government. Mussolini defined it as the following: the government is put before anything or anyone; “everything inside the state;” everything encompassed within the nation adopting fascism as its means of rule must abide to the governing entity, in this case, a dictator; “nothing outside the state;” the nation must develop as much as possible and...
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...The Great Depression sent shockwaves of poverty and economic ruin all the way to Italy by the 1920’s. Eventually, this set the stage for Benito Mussolini and his fascist party to rule Italy through an authoritarian dictatorship that lasted for many years (1922-1943). Preoccupied with the appalling situation of Italy, Mussolini quickly reacted to the problems caused by the Great Depression by taking many steps to ensure population growth through many public policies of propaganda and social tactics. However, the resulting policy primarily failed as it was sexist and economically nonsensical, receiving negative reactions especially from women and economists. As previously mentioned, the fascist Italy attempted to gain supreme control over the...
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...HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS MUSSOLINI IN CREATING A DICTATORSHIP IN ITALY BETWEEN 1922-40. When Mussolini became prime minister, in October 1922, he was not faced with a trouble-free position because he had to tackle the same problems that confronted the liberal Italian state throughout its existence. In terms of his domestic policies, it could be argued that Mussolini was more successful than his predecessors including Giolitti. However, historians cannot argue that even with his direct and ruthless political methods, he put an end to the divisions in Italian society that had if anything stunted Italy’s prosperity as a country and in this period Mussolini seemed to be the answer to all their problems. Mussolini’s route to creating his personal dictatorship was all based on his ability for the acquisition and advertisement of power. The most important factors which stood in Mussolini’s way; such as parliament, opposition parties and the monarchy itself were effectively eliminated as real forces in Italian politics. A key reason for Mussolini’s dictatorship was the introduction of the Acerbo Law in 1923 which main principle was which ever electoral bloc received the majority of votes would gain 2/3 of the seats in the chamber and the remaining 1/3 would be allocated to the other opposition parties. Mussolini used this law to his advantage as he knew fascist could not have carried through Acerbo’s policy but for electoral purposes the fascists formed an electoral bloc with leading...
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...Mussolini however could not have claimed his rise to power if it weren't for the Liberals crippling themselves due to the split in decisions of the First World War, from then on the Liberals were left with a continuous struggle to maintain the old transformismo system of a coalition government. The introduction of male suffrage in 1918 stemmed the emerge of mass parties adding to the increasing problems of the liberals which again was worsened by Nitti's introduction of proportional representation in 1919 it seemed as though the years went on instead of Italy's political instability being stabelised the Liberals problems worsened making a wider division within the Chamber of Deputies. 1919 went from bad to worse for the Liberals as catholic party (Popalari) emerged, Liberals new support would flood in mass amounts however they also new there co-operation also looked unlikely as the Popalari deplored the Liberals policies. Added stress was inflicted apoun the liberals when the 1919 elections were a disaster they led to the Socialists and the Popalari became the biggest parties in the Chamber of Deputies this however was unconventional as neither of these parties cooperated with one other or the Liberals. 1919 seemed to be the year which Italian politics came to a halt, various prime ministers came and went with numerous failed coalitions to try and salvage Italian politics and in one more bid to save the Liberals Gioltti called for another election in May 1921 however this led...
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...Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini is a name you probably hear often, but you don’t really know much about him except that he was an evil man and that he was sort of similar to Hitler. Mussolini was the creator of the Fascist Movement/Fascist Party in Italy in 1919. He made himself prime minister and ruled from 1922-1945. He had ideas pretty similar to Hitler and even started his own anti-Jew laws in Italy. While he may not have done as many horrid things as Hitler, he was still incredibly evil. But, we’ll talk more about that later. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, in Dovia di Predappio, Forlì, Romagna, Italy. He was the oldest child of three from his parents, Rosa Maltoni Mussolini and Alessandro Mussolini. His father was a passionate socialist and blacksmith. His mother was a Catholic schoolteacher, and she provided most of the family income because the father was busy doing political things and spending money on his mistress (not Benito’s mom, scandalous!). Mussolini was a very bright and...
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...The Growing Support for Hitler and Mussolini HIST December 15, 2012 After the First World War, both Italy and Germany was in an economic down turn. Both countries saw hardship with the addition of high unemployment rates. Workers in both counties were unhappy with how life was, which spurred riots and strikes. A leader emerged from each country, claiming radical ideology was the solution. Mussolini and his Party adopted trending ideology to better appeal in the political environment. Hitler on the other hand, stuck to his radical ideas of a racial cleansing which he expressed in his book Mien Kampf. Both leaders didn’t come into power on their own but with the support and loyalty from many followers, their needs to become dictator was successful. With such radical ideas, it would be less likely they would come to power during these present times, but of course we learn from the past so we may not repeat the mistakes from prior experiences. But why did so many Germans and Italians supported radical dictators that would eventually lead the world to another war? The revolutionary movement after the First World War increasingly grew in Milan, where many far left-wing politicians expressed extreme socialist ideas in revolt of how the current state of Italy. Mussolini knew this movement was what he needed in order to win the public over. Unfortunately the 1919 election only captured two percent of the vote for Mussolini and his Fascist Party. By 1920, socialist revolts and...
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...a huge debt was amassed, and unemployment soared. Unrest began to spread throughout the lower classes throughout the country when the government began spending three times the money it was making, and refusing to tax the wealthy citizens of Italy. Benito Mussolini preached opposition to discrimination based on social class and was strongly opposed to all forms of class war during the earlier stages of the fascist party’s development to gain popular support. Once the ideology of Fascism was fully developed the fascist began preaching nationalist sentiments such as a strong unity, regardless of class, in the hopes of raising Italy up to the levels of its past, the Roman Empire. Later, Fascism would change its ideas and began to go back on old claims. Fascism began to promote that state as the ultimate end, rule by the elie, rejection of democracy, rejection of the idea that all people are created equal, promotion of the militarization of the state with the establishment of a “warrior” class, demanding citizen to perform...
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...• Mussolini differed from Hitler in regard to Jews and Homosexuals and other groups from power. • Mussolini faced more opposition from Liberals and leftist groups, while Hitler adopted totalitarianism with a lot of nationalistic pride. • Both used something called Secret policy. • Yet both policies were different in nature. Hitler focused more a pollution of the German state and influences from the Aryan race. While Mussolini utilized bandits and hooligans to keep and strengthen his power. • Hitler and Mussolini placed fear into the hearts of the general public. Trepidation was present but for different reasons. • People beneath Hitler were afraid of not fitting in. conformity took over and wanted to be apart of the Aryan race. Because if you did not fit in, the consequences were grave such as death camps, and so...
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...Many would think that two of the most regimented states of the nineteenth century would have very similar platforms. But alas, this is not the case in regards to Mussolini’s and Hitler’s views on the formation of their ideal states. The head of Italy believes in an ethical, Fascist state, while Germany’s totalitarian leader looked to fuse the state under the idea that one group of people were responsible for the world’s worst problems. Mussolini is in favor of “…the state to be strong, organic, and at the same time founded on a wide popular basis” (Mussolini 238). In this state “…the individual is not suppressed, but rather multiplied.” (Mussolini 239). Namely, he advocates for the state of Italy to become strengthened through the collective...
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...multiple dictators came to power before him. Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler all shared the same fundamentals when related to leadership. These three dictators were able to gain power in their...
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...How far did Mussolini achieve his aims in Foreign Policy? One of the first things that Benito Mussolini wanted to do was to expand Italy and give it and empire to rule over like France and Great Britain. He wanted Italy to be recognized as one of the dominant forces in Europe. The first of his conquests was Abyssinia. This he begun on the 40th Anniversary of the humiliating defeat Italy suffered at Adowa under the Liberals: Mussolini wanted to complete a fete that the Liberals couldn’t. As a means of propaganda to show that Italy was more powerful and united under Fascism than it had been under the Liberals. Mussolini gloried and reveled in the creation of an East African Empire. Britain and France, who Italy were allying with secretly allowed for and gave concession to his Abyssinian war. However, because they were both democracy’s, under internal condemnation and pressure, they had to publicly criticize Mussolini and Italy’s actions. This really infuriated Mussolini at the sheer hypocrisy shown by the 2 countries, as they both had large empires. This was also done because the public saw this as a brutal violation of another League of Nations country. Furthermore, in private Britain and France tried to mediate a deal, the Laval Pact. But this didn’t help the situation, because they had to side with the League of Nations, who enforced sanctions on Italy. However, this made Mussolini immensely popular at home, what one might call his finest hour. The sanctions didn’t include...
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...Between 1896 and 1914 there were huge political and economic changes that occurred in Italy. There was some progress politically due to Giolitti’s system of appeasing people, however, various different political groups were formed like the socialists, nationalists which show a sign of disunity. Although, economically, Italy did grow between these years with the boom in agricultural industry for example, this growth did not unite Italy as the growth was mainly seen in the North and less so in the South Italy was clearly disunited politically in the years 1896-1914, which we see from the various different groups/ parties that were formed during the time to oppose Giolitti’s government. During these years, many different groups spread in Italy like the socialists, anarchists and Marxists. All these groups ultimately meant more hard work for Giolitti, as they all opposed the liberal state and the government of Giolliti and hence wanted reform. Many ideas like those of the socialists were spreading due to industrialisation that was going on during this period of time. With areas like Milan growing from 300,000 to 600,000 between 1880-1914, it is clear how ideas could easily spread amongst the masses as there were now more people in areas than ever before. This added to the political disunity as the rising working classes meant that people would be more effective in attacks against government. Italy was not a democracy in 1896 so the right to vote was held only by the rich due...
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